Zim News Blog -NEWS NETWORK

Soon after his ascendency to the presidency in 2017 Emmerson Mnangagwa, Robert Mugabe’s successor, proclaimed the country ‘open for business’ and pledged to build a new Zimbabwe. But how did things turn so bad for Emmerson Mnangagwa. Is Zimbabwe still open for business? To answer this CNBC Africa’s Daniel Sango spoke with Professor Brian Raftopoulos, Zimbabwean Scholar & Activist, and Director of Research at University of the Western Cape.

Source: Why Mnangagwa’s Zimbabwe is open for business ‘mantra’ is going all wrong – Expert (VIDEO) – Nehanda TV

 

The post Why Mnangagwa’s Zimbabwe is open for business ‘mantra’ is going all wrong – Expert (VIDEO)  appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

Source: India Eximbank to share infrastructure notes with Zim | Daily News

HARARE – India’s export and import bank (Eximbank) is expected to share infrastructure notes with Zimbabwe when its officials visit the country next week.

The Indian lender, which plays the role of coordinator and facilitator for the promotion of Project Exports covering overseas industrial turnkey projects, civil construction contracts, supplies as well as technical and consultancy service contracts, has so far extended lines of credit valued at over US$8 billion to 44 African countries.

Zimbabwe will this month hold a summit to discuss ways of developing and revamping its infrastructure, which has been run down through years of economic mismanagement. According to the African Development Bank (AfDB), Zimbabwe which needs over $30 billion to revamp its ageing and dilapidated infrastructure, has failed to move with the times due to lack of finance for capital projects.

But President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government has said it wants to rebuild roads, dams and other national assets to world-class standards. Global Renaissance chief executive Ngonidzashe Dzirutwe said the summit seeks to discuss funding models for infrastructural development particularly privatisation in boosting development.

“The summit is set to promote and motivate the government officials towards creating good infrastructure while attracting foreign direct investments from project funders and encourage local funding participation,” he said. The southern African country has spent a paltry $2 billion, cumulatively, on critical infrastructure between 2009 and 2016, an amount, analysts say, should have been spent on an annual basis.

Dzirutwe said good and sufficient infrastructure resources will automatically lead to economic growth and industrialists will be drawn to Zimbabwe. “We want to achieve oneness to local development, promote information dissemination, consultative policies, local government to upgrade the standards and provide low-cost housing, lure foreign and local funders, to ensure local contractors are in tune with international developments, promote the fast development of a new Harare to alleviate housing shortages, to encourage easy of doing business and establishment of functional economic zones,” he said.

Among projects to be discussed is the Beitbridge-Harare-Chirundu road where the tender to dualise the highway has been on the drawing board for the past 16 years. It was initially awarded in 2002 to ZimHighways — a consortium of local companies — but the company failed to implement the project for over a decade.

Last year, government terminated its earlier agreement with Geiger International, and later said it will float a $500 million bond to raise capital while renegotiating a $2,7 billion road-dualisation deal with a Chinese contractor. The Batoka Dam project will also be part of discussed projects which the Zambezi River Authority has said AfDB has initiated a $4 billion mobilisation plan for its development.

Dzirutwe said the Kunzvi Dam will also be discussed so that it can be executed and evaluated later on. The construction of the dam was proposed in the 1990s in a bid to solve water problems affecting Harare and its satellite towns, which get supplies from the heavily polluted Lake Chivero.

Lack of financial resources has made investment in infrastructure a difficult undertaking.Guests for the summit will include government ministers, ambassadors, local municipalities, bankers, investors, contractors and industrialists among others.

The post India Eximbank to share infrastructure notes with Zim appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

Source: Magistrate remands Chikore case | Daily News

HARARE – Cop absolves Mugabe’s son-in-law of wrong doing  A police officer has cleared Simba Chikore, son in law of former President Robert Mugabe, of any wrongdoing in a case he is accused of unlawfully detaining Zimbabwe Airways legal secretary Bertha Zakeyo.

Alwyn Tigere was testifying in the case where Chikore, who is jointly charged with a security guard Simbarashe Mutimbe, is accused of stopping Zakeyo from exiting the controversial airline’s offices after summarily firing her.

Allegations are that Chikore — married to Mugabe’s daughter Bona — reportedly embarked on a purge of senior staff at Zimbabwe Airways he accused of being disloyal to the company. According to Zakeyo, she received a letter from her boss Chikore, demanding that she responds to a battery of charges levelled against her.

The charges included holding unsanctioned meetings outside the company premises and trading sensitive information.
She later received an e-mail from Chikore demanding that she writes a report detailing her dealings with unnamed external parties.

In a docket opened at the Highlands Police Station, Zakeyo said Chikore — whom she accused of masquerading as a captain — kidnapped her for more than two hours and also denied her access to her lawyer, Phillipa Phillips with help from police officers including Tigere.

Testifying yesterday, Tigere said that Zakeyo’s freedom of movement was never restricted and could move as she pleased.
It was his testimony that when they arrived at Zakeyo’s offices, she was drinking tea alone and refused to hand over the company property after she was fired by Chikore.

“We were told that the complainant wanted to hand over the cell phone in the presence of the police and when we asked her to do so, she shifted goal posts and demanded to hand over the phone at the police station,” he told the court. He said when her lawyer Philips arrived at the scene, Zakeyo refused to surrender the phone, whose contents were never revealed in court.

“During lunch, she served her food, made some calls and charged her cell phone. When we instructed her to leave, she told us that she was not in a hurry because a local news crew was on the way.
“We had no option but to wait for her to leave because we could not leave both parties under the same roof,” Tigere added.

The State also insisted on leading evidence from Philips, with prosecutor Mirirai Shumba saying they “cannot do without her evidence.” This comes after Philips wrote to the prosecutor general saying she cannot testify against Chikore citing conflict of interest.
In the letter, Philips also stated that she went to the Zimbabwe Airways premises in her capacity as the company lawyer not as Zakeyo’s lawyer.

Shumba said he will engage his superiors to interpret whether section 294 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act, which prohibits lawyers from testifying against their clients, applies to Philips. “I will seek directive from my superiors to come up with a proper interpretation because section 294 is very broad and does not give specific parameters,” Shumba said

Magistrate Victoria Mashamba remanded the matter to March 27.

The post Magistrate remands Chikore case appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

A 'bogus' soldier, donning complete army regalia from head to toe, has been busted and taken into custody. However, it seems as if sceptical citizens have not been too quick to buy the narrative with some social media users opining that this seems to be a stunt by the government to try to fit the […]

DITHERING President Emmerson Mnangagwa could miss the chance of presiding over proper political dialogue that may bring solutions to Zimbabwe’s decades long crisis, opposition MDC Nelson Chamisa said, Friday. Chamisa, last year’s losing candidate in presidential elections narrowly won by Mnangagwa was addressing women supporters at an International Women’s Day commemorations in Chitungwiza. “We are […]